일본의 가정재판소조사관제도의 활용 - 인사소송법상의 사실조사와 관련하여 -

Abstract

Seoul Family Court marked the 50th anniversary this year since theopening of our country's first specialized court on October 1, 1963. TheFamily Court specializes in peaceful resolution of family conflict and disputeon the basis of the guardianship and welfare function as well as judicialresolution of conflict. In modern society when the role of the Family Courthas been growing due to social change and subsequent civil law amendment,above all, it is urgently needed to build human expertise. Hence, the FamilyCourt employs family court probation officers as independent civil servantswho are in charge of the roles to eliminate and solve the cause of familydisputes by figuring out the truth of the case, based on the establishedexpertise and insight. However, unlike Japan, Korea has been experiencinglack of officers and has not have any proper system to train and supportofficers because Korea does not properly recognize the distinctiveness andprofessionalism of the tasks of the family court probation officer. Therefore,this article focuses on the family litigation matters that the Japanese's familycourt has jurisdiction over, in terms of securing and implementingprofessionalism of the family court probation officer. And the basic of thefact-finding task which is the most fundamental and significant task of thefamily court probation officer and how the result of the fact-finding would bereflected in practice were investigated in this article. On the basis of thisinformation, this article suggests as follows in order that in Korea, the family court in Korea performs its own functions faithfully. First, the faster the intervention of a family court probation officer, thebetter because it is needed to rapidly implement the procedure in order tolessen apprehension and stabilize their legal status considering the nature offamily matters. Second, the accurate information obtained through the familycourt probation officer's investigation is as important as the family courtprobation officer's investigation itself. And reliable opinion and advice basedon the obtained information are also important when conveyed to thedepartment of justice. Thus, it is necessary for the family court to employfamily court probation officers with sufficient knowledge and experience andto introduce effective training system for them. In addition, active support isneeded to help family court probation officers to activate and improve theirprofessionalism and legal knowledge more. Third, it is desirable to find appropriate ways to solve the problem bycooperating with the department of justice throughout the family litigationprocedure as well as writing an investigation report, which is possible bymeans of increasing the number of family court probation officers andsecuring their expertise. Fourth, it is needed to build investigation models orprovide guidelines in order to promote dealing with a case in a safe wayamong the family courts which are located in each area.